Before second-grade teacher Kimberly Patterson received tenure and the ironclad job protections it provides, she said, "my principal never set foot in my classroom while I was teaching."
And when Virgil Middle School teacher Roberto Gonzalez came up for tenure, he discovered there was no evaluation for him on file. When he inquired about it, his school hastily faxed one to district headquarters.
"I'm pretty sure it was just made up on the spot," Gonzalez said.
There is nothing to suggest these teachers didn't deserve tenure, but the district did little to ensure they were worthy.
A Times investigation found that the Los Angeles Unified School District routinely grants tenure to new teachers after